Glitz, Glamor Meet At Benefit For Alzheimer`s

November 01, 1991|By Michael Kilian, Chicago Tribune.

NEW YORK — Twenty five years ago, the late author and social butterfly Truman Capote threw a legendary masked ball at the Plaza Hotel for 540 of his ``favorite people``-Tallulah Bankhead, Princess Lee Radziwell, Frank Sinatra, etc.-an occasion so grand, glittering, socially perfect and epochal that none other than Gloria Steinem covered it for Vogue Magazine.

Thursday night, in honor of her late mother, Rita Hayworth, and the national Alzheimer`s Association, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan attempted to recreate that ``party of the century`` with a copycat masked ``Black and White Ball,`` expanding the guest list to 800 of the world`s most ``beautiful people`` and switching the locale to a huge tent in Central Park hard by the Tavern on the Green.

She couldn`t very well hold it in the Plaza, now owned by Donald Trump, because one of her more spectacularly dressed guests was the celebrated ex-Mrs. Trump-Ivana.

It was grand and glittering, all right, right down to the Yves St. Laurent party favors. Indeed, poverty-stricken New York hasn`t seen anything like it since the recession hit. But, as a reflection of how hard times have become, the Capote role at the ball was played by Robin ``Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous`` Leach, and some of the guests actually arrived by cab.

Still, the $2,500-a-plate seats were filled with some of the most glamorous and best-dressed personages the society whirl can produce these days, including Michael and Diandra Douglas, Patty Hearst, Nina Griscom, Estee Lauder, Isabella Rossellini, Joanne Woodward, Lauren Hutton, supermodel/

Because it was Halloween, the menu was replete with such items as pumpkin soup served in actual hollowed-out pumpkins (placed on beds of autumn leaves that looked to have been scraped up from the nearby park). Dessert was chocolate bat.

Guests were encouraged to come in costume, but few did (though in New York, it`s often hard to tell evening finery from Halloween costumes). Instead, most preferred to ``put on the Ritz.`` The theme for the night was high fashion, with 53 of the more notable ladies present parading before the revelers in black and white gowns specifically made for them by specific designers specifically for the grand occasion-Hearst in Oscar de la Renta, Norville in Michael Kors, Jagger in Calvin Klein, Sonia Braga in Bob Mackie, the Ivana in Mary McFadden.